Aug. 12, 2005

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Former Terp Sarunas Jasikevicius became one of the Indiana Pacers' elder statesmen Thursday after signing a 3-year contract. The 29-year-old Lithuanian played for four years at Maryland and spent the past seven years playing in Europe.

"Hopefully I'll be a small piece of the puzzle and contribute," the former Terp said at a news conference. "On a daily basis, I have to earn respect from my teammates and my coaches and everybody in the organization.

"So it's a different situation than if I changed teams in Europe. I'm OK with that, because this has been a dream for me to play in the NBA for many years."

Jasikevicius is now the 51st player in Terrapin history to make it to the National Basketball Association. He is also the 29th NBA player coached by Maryland head coach Gary Williams.

"I'm obviously very happy for Sarunas," said Williams. "He worked very hard to achieve what he's achieved, beginning with learning the English language when he first came to the U.S. He improved at Maryland and continued to get better after he left."

The 6-foot-4 guard averaged 15.7 points and 5.3 assists last season, helping Maccabi Tel Aviv win its second straight Euroleague championship. With the retirement of 39-year-old Reggie Miller and the uncertainty of the return of 36-year-old free agent Dale Davis, Jasikevicius is older than all but four of Indiana's veteran players.

"I think I'm going to have to adapt to the team much more than they're going to have to adapt to me," Jasikevicius said. "I'm a rookie. I might be very old for a rookie, but I am one. So I'm going to adjust to the team."

The Pacers won't necessarily be looking to Jasikevicius for scoring, even with Miller gone. They figure they'll get plenty of points from Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson, along with the returning Ron Artest, who missed all but nine games last season after he was suspended for fighting with fans at Detroit.

Jasikevicius, instead, will likely share playing time at point guard with Jamaal Tinsley, Anthony Johnson and Eddie Gill.

"He's a guy who can score, yet I don't see him referred to a lot as a big scorer," coach Rick Carlisle said. "He's a winner. And he's done it in a lot of different situations."

After four years at Maryland, Jasikevicius was not drafted by an NBA team and returned to Europe, where he played for Lietuvos Rytas in his native Lithuania. He later played for Barcelona and in Israel and drew new interest in the NBA after he scored 28 points in Lithuania's upset over the United States in the Olympics last year.

He turned down offers from Cleveland, Utah, Seattle and Portland before agreeing to join the Pacers last month.

"I've seen Sarunas play a number of times," Pacers president Larry Bird said. "He has a unique ability to get the ball to people that's open. He can hit open shots. He's a competitor. He just adds so much to our team."

The fact he was recruited personally by Bird, helped sway Jasikevicius' decision, he said.

"Obviously, he has incredible respect all over the world," he said. "For me, obviously, it's very nice to have a guy like this come talk to me."